On the Matt Stajan Scratch

Although the Flames have made a habit of scratching expensive defensemen this year, recently re-sisgned Matt Stajan has found himself in the stands for the last two contests. With the Flames winning the most recent game versus the Blue Jackets, it wouldn’t surprise me if Stajan finds himself munching popcorn again on Thursday.

In fact, an extended winning streak during what might be the softest portion of the Flames schedule this year could potentially make what was previously the clubs de facto "#1 center" a regular observer. Hardly an ideal situation.

My opinion of Stajan hasn’t changed much since I first saw him in Flames colors last year: he’s just okay. He has some strengths (puck handling, vision) and some weaknesses (lackluster strength on his skates, terrible shot rate) that make the overall package acceptable if less than compelling.

He’s an NHLer for sure and at best a complimentary center on a good team. If he’s not overpaid for his contributions, the truth is he’ll never be a bargain with his current $3.5 million ticket.

Like the player, Stajan’s results this season are just okay. HIs possession rate is solidly mediocre (+4.06/60). His 16 points in 25 games is right in line with his career average of 50-ish per season.

He boasts the best ES scoring rate amongst regular Flames forwards this year (2.96/60) although the truth is that number is inflated by his team best on-ice SH% 12.4% and team high number of second assists. Let’s just say, neither of those things are strong indicators of future offensive performance.

Stajan’s shot rate has also fallen down to near goon-like levels this year, with just 28 in 25 games played (he had 0 shots in his last 4 games before being kicked to the press box). Although Stajan has always looked to pass first during his NHL career, his current shot rate (1.12/game) puts him in line for his lowest total since his sophomore season in 2005-06. On top of all that, he’s played nearly a full hour on the PP and recorded nary a point.

On the other hand, I’m not sure what the club gains by keeping Stajan out of the active line-up. He’s certainly not the worst player amongst the regular skaters (err…Tom Kostopolous anyone?). Other guys up front on this club – particualrly other big ticket forwards – have been allowed to "play through" rough stretches by Sutter, even extended periods of ineffectiveness *cough* Jokinen *cough*.

So I’m not quite sure what compels Sutter to keep Stajan in the dgohouse.

Like Vancouver and their overabundance of same-ish guys on defense, I suppose there was always a risk of a big ticket getting pushed down the depth chart here in Calgary a la Keith Ballard over there this season, but it still strikes me as a…curious use of an asset. And while I’m starting to get used to some $6M+ in cap space sitting in the press box every night,

I think it behooves the organization to find a use for the player on the ice or in the trade market here, sooner rather than later. The longer they fail to do the former, the more difficult the latter becomes, if being trade fodder is to be his ultimate fate.

the ragin stajan has never been known as a rugged player. the label of being soft dates back to his junior days. mats lacks the edge needed to elevate his game from depth centre ice man to frontline cog. soft hands but also soft shot and heart. the tough question is what do you do with a 3 plus mill cap hit. the price is a little steep to facillitate a move. ideally stajan is a number two guy, ith some special teams minutes, that being said i think he can help more on the ice than a kotalik or kotospoulus.

I really don’t know how anyone can look at the carnage of this roster and not conclude dutter needs to go. You can overlook the Stajan scratch. Or you can overlook the Sarich scratch. You could maybe make a case to overlook both. But when you add Staois, Jokinen, Kotalik, a glut of 3rd liners, bottom in the conference, no cap space, no good prospects, and only 1 pick in the first three rounds… It’s pure carnage and there’s only 1 guy responsible for it.

If Daz does his usual thing, He will be strait on the phone to Glen Slather (or EAST DAZ as I like to call him). Stajan will be traded for Wade Redden, Brandon Prust (Darryl loves messing with this dude’s head) and a broken stick

The guy is continually turning the puck over at both blue lines because of soft plays with the puck. Instead of a good hard puck push to the corner to facilitate a line change and to keep the pressure on, it’s a soft push which is easily turned into possession for the opposing team. Very frustrating.

To me Stajan is just another example of a player who has been slotted in higher on the depth chart than what he is capable of. He is a servicable center, probably best suited to a 2nd or 3rd line role, as most forwards on this team are. Hopefully Stajan becomes that player Darryl Sutter thought he would become when he signed him to that contract. But right now he is another overpaid underachieving forward on this team.

Who is Calgary’s eastern pro scout? Goulet does the west right? Who ever does the east should be fired. Jokinen has been a bust, White bombed out, Stajan is a healthy scratch with 1 goal in his last 43 contests…Babchuk… I almost forgot Kotalik. Has Darryl traded for anyone good out of the eastern conference?

Daryl has used the “square peg for a round hole” strategy for pretty much everything he does. Unfortunately, he also pays the players commensurate with what he wants the players to do and not what they are capable of doing.

Stajan – 2nd -3rd line centre with some defensive skill being used and paid as a 1st line centre.

Staios – given time on the power play.

Backlund – 1st round pick being molded as a defensive centre.

Moss – treated like a 20 goal scorer, as opposed to a guy who (miraculously) scored 20 goals (and will never repeat that feat).

Babchuk – criticized by coaches for not being good defensively. He was never good defensively and you just traded to get him.

Jokinen/Kotalik – both are long past their prime and the team still hopes that they can get back the magic they had 5 years ago!

The list could go on for the whole roster in terms of players being used for almost the opposite of what they are good at.

The reason Daryl gives out so many NTC’s is because he never makes any mistakes.

wouldn’t the director of player development have insight into the talent levels of various teams in the east, seeing that he spent years in a similiar role with the panthers. panthers isnt that where ollie had most of his sucess? oh i never seen the connection before. so is ollie duanes guy?

Sure why not… lets through another Sutter under the bus while we’re at it. The more the merrier!

And for the record I don’t hate Stajan. I just think that he has been put in a position to not succeed. If Calgary had a number one center then Stajan probably does well vs. lesser comp. To me this either means that Olli was still believed to be the #1 guy or the team believes that Backlund will get there in two years. Backlund, Stajan, as our 1,2 centers. Does that make sense?

backlund as 1, stajan as 3 makes more sense in the longterm. however, the flames are paying mats frontline dollars today and the next couple of years. yes if mats was being played against lesser lites his numbers and contribution would be enhanced. so is mats being mishandled, if so then thats a coaching issue. as the principle return in the dion trade, and i will be the first to admit dion was overhyped overpaid and over rated by the flames stajan ain’t cuttin the mustard.

I think I can count on one hand the number of players Darryl has signed in the last few years that didn’t get a NTC of some kind. The only guys I can think of are Ian White, Tim Jackman, Raitis Ivanans, uh…

You know what I’ll never understand based on previous conversations and where this one is trending to? This:.

1. Last year around this time, the general consensus seemed to be:

We NEED to trade Dion. Too much $ on the D. He’s terrible defensively, akin to Jovo, ain’t even THAT great offensively, is trouble in the room and is a pompous jerk.

I personally didn’t see it this way and remember arguing with the masses about trading him, defending, primarily that he was young, and secondarily his value was poor at the time and we’d get bad return for who he is.

2. NOW…

So many people are thrashing Sutter for the return. WTF? Look, -TK for Sjostrom. Lateral move.

-Babchuk for Aulie (this may become a big loss, but don’t forget that Aulie would be about 10th on our “d” depth chart trending up, playing in the AHL with Brodie.)

-So, we got Stajan (the man of the hour) and Hagman for Phaneuf.

What the hell did people expect for a defenseman that nearly everyone described as an overrated, pompous, bum who can’t play d.

Did you think we’d get 16 first rounders, Malkin and Jesus? I’d say, considering the timing, Hagman and Stajan for Phaneuf isn’t that awful and I still saw value in Phaneuf on this team. This was mostly based on the fact that Sarich + other (now Staois) are nearly the same cap hit, and they aren’t Dion. But, we aren’t getting Stajan OR Hagman for Sarich.

Stajan may suck balls right now (which I was concerned about and said then that he was WAY overpaid…to the tune of 1 mil.) BUT the Neuf-dog was getting BOOOED in Toronto, and scored his first goal yesterday (granted he was hurt).

1. I think we should have kept him. As the to-date cap hit of Jbo, Reggie, Dion, Gio, Pardy, Mikkel, + 7th man would be 20 mil, only 200K more than it is today (with our crazy-8). AND.. most importantly it would be 1.8mil LESS than it was when we HAD White then vs Babchuk now. I thought the reason for trading Dion, was “it doesn’t work having all that money in the back-end.”

Buy-out, trade or bury Sarich if you have to, to keep Dion.

I think you can run around 22mil hit on the d corps this and next year. Any significant amount more is too much for a full cap team (Van is ~25mil.). So Gio would have to come back for ~3.5, to keep Dion and the cap in check. It’s very reasonable.

this also opens up the opportunity for your #2.

2. I think people who WANTED Dion moved (the majority it seemed), SHOULD stop lamenting the trade. George Johnson wrote today that Toronto won the trade hands down. For the people who wanted Dion gone… I don’t think that should be true at all, and even if it is, it’s foolhardy to dwell on that in hindsight. It’s even more questionable to hold that against Sutter. Darryl has done things I don’t support, and he didn’t do what I wanted with Dion, but even I don’t hold the Dion move as a strike against him. I don’t know how those who wanted Dion gone, can.

Move on, those who thought Dion was shit then, don’t change that position now.

I’d rather have the leagues most overpaid 4th defender in a 25 yr old Dion, than any combination of the leagues most overpaid (and equally so) 7th and 8th defenders in 33yr old Sarich and 37yr old Staios sitting in the press box.

But, hey, everyone called me crazy last year for endlessly arguing that we should keep him. So, let’s not forget to boo Dion tonight cause of how much worse off we were with him.

In my opinion moving Dion was still the right thing to do, however by MANY accounts (from GM’s in the NHL) Sutter didn’t even shop him, so please forgive me for continuing to thrash on the return! (Frankly though, I really like Hagman as a player, always have and will continue to)- The return for Phaneuf (in my eyes) is just a symptom of the real problem – being knee-jerk fashion he made the move, and the continued mis-management of assets. That’s what I think p!sses people off.

“the real problem – being knee-jerk fashion he made the move, and the continued mis-management of assets.”

That’s, put plainly, just silly.

First, Nobody has any idea that the move was “knee-jerk.” period.

Second, the management of assets is what I was addressing. Most seemed to describe Phaneuf as anything but an asset. YET, people seem to have the idea, that it was OUR BIG SECRET. That everyone else would think he was awesome. Either he sucked, or he didn’t. Either he was a great asset or he wasn’t much of one.

I don’t think Darryl is the one having problems being consistent in his assessments of how much of an ass(et) Phaneuf was.

prior to Jan 1 2010 Calgary still among the best records in the NHL
Jan 28 2010 Flames losing streak extended to 9 games. Jan 31 2010 Dion Phaneuf traded to Toronto in a “blockbuster” deal. There’s no way you’ll ever convince me that Sutter was assessing Dion Phaneuf’s trade value before January 1st. To me this screams “knee jerk” – if it doesnt say the same to you, so be it. As for the asset management, as for who thought he was awesome or not, and what they were willing to give up, we’ll never know, and neither will Darryl Sutter because by all accounts he didn’t even try.

I agree with Icedawg; it does scream knee jerk. Signing stajan to a 5 year deal made no sense. Signing a guy like J-bow made sense, he put up decent numbers and gave you reason to believe he is worth it. What did Stajan do, buy Sutter dinner???

I used to really respect the way Darryl ran this team, but look at the last 10 players we have traded for. Since we brought in Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau its been all downhill.

I really dont want to see Sutter do another trade ever. I’m scared of what he will do.

I dont want to get sucked into a Dion Phaneuf debate – that trade is not the reason I think Sutter should be done…it’s just an example – a symptom of the underlying problem of how he values his “assets”

“2. I think people who WANTED Dion moved (the majority it seemed), SHOULD stop lamenting the trade. George Johnson wrote today that Toronto won the trade hands down. For the people who wanted Dion gone… I don’t think that should be true at all, and even if it is, it’s foolhardy to dwell on that in hindsight.” – I agree with you here. And I may get lambasted for this, but I’d rather have Hagman (even without any finish (finnish?) than Phaneuf.

Kent – do you think the visitors being his old team slides the odds into Stajan’s favor of playing? Maybe Brent is working the angle of a combination of Stajan back off a bench-warmer, plus wanting to show up his old team to break his goal drought?

I heard Howse got cut from the Canadian junior team, are there any other Flames prospects playing in this years WJC? I’m also curious if you guys are planning any coverage or articles regarding that event? Maybe prospects that the Flames should be interested in should the season tank? I’m curious about your thoughts on who the Flames should draft if they were to finish bottom 10? I know there are proponents for Landeskog (Gange) and I have seen some highlights, I like his overall game, but he’s a right winger. If we’re drafting top 5 and he is a player that will be playing on your team next year, that might not be the best fit.